Cop gets his job back — again

Updated 11:25 pm, Sunday, May 29, 2011

San Antonio police Lt. Lee Rakun has staved off his second dismissal from the department — his 14th suspension overall in a 17-year career — and this time, he said, he will not mess it up.

“This is my last debacle for me,” said Rakun, 42.

Police Chief William McManus fired him Sept. 9 for lying to internal affairs investigators, disobeying an order and failing to report a crime.

The discipline followed an investigation into a domestic disturbance between Rakun and his then-girlfriend, Norma Sanchez, both of whom unleashed a torrent of accusations, each claiming abuse by the other.

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“I'm getting old; I've got too many battle scars,” Rakun said Friday, adding that he just wants to live quietly and get back to work.

Of Rakun's total suspensions, nine were related to personal issues. Both dismissals, called indefinite suspensions, involved Sanchez. Two temporary suspensions arose from a pair of misdemeanor criminal cases in Kendall County, where Rakun lived in 2005.

There, he was accused of striking two females at his house, but both alleged victims later recanted. And a man accused Rakun of making abusive and threatening calls. When the charges were dropped, so were the suspensions.

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A 2006 settlement agreement following his first firing allowed him to come back to work, much like the agreement finalized Thursday by McManus.

The deal reduced Rakun's indefinite suspension to 125 days, ending it on Jan. 12, according to the settlement letter.

Under its terms, he will receive back pay for the missed days between then and his return June 7, and the city withdrew the allegations that Rakun failed to report a crime and that he failed to obey orders.

At the time of the suspension, information about what crime he allegedly failed to report was redacted under public information exemptions.

The order he was accused of not obeying, issued by his superiors in 2005, was that he avoid contact with Sanchez.

Rakun, in turn, has agreed to have his name removed from the list for promotion to captain — he was first on the list when fired. He also again agreed to have no contact with Sanchez for one year and report any communication attempts by her.

“I have absolutely, positively no intentions of seeing her for the rest of my life, or any reincarnated life,” Rakun said.

The process that resulted in his firing began with a 911 call Sanchez made May 17, 2010 for a disturbance at Rakun's apartment.

She told officers he locked himself in the bathroom with a gun and threatened to kill himself; Rakun told them he retreated to the bathroom only because he wanted to avoid her fury over his breaking up with her.

In an interview 10 days later, a sergeant noted Sanchez appeared to have a bruise near her right eye. She said Rakun hit her in his truck that April, though reports said officers responding to the 911 call saw no signs of abuse or bruising.

When first asked about it, Rakun told investigators Sanchez fell off a moving all-terrain vehicle. The next day, he went back and told them he had lied — Sanchez was hitting him and grabbing for the steering wheel in his pickup while making jealous accusations and he struck her with his elbow when pushing back, he said.

There still is an assault case against Rakun at the district attorney's office because of what happened in the truck. Sanchez said Friday her version of events was the truth, that Rakun punched her without provocation, and she said she hoped the criminal case would move forward.

“I was upset because this is just something else he managed to get away with again,” said Sanchez, 42. “I'm disappointed in the system and Chief McManus.”

The city attorney's office didn't return calls for comment on the agreement.

In the end, Rakun accepted the reinstatement on the single basis of that he lied to investigators about the ATV accident. He said he did not hit Sanchez on purpose but just was trying to defend himself.

“I deserve the penalty based on my poor choice of having entertained a very diseased relationship,” Rakun said.